Welcome to my Chicken blog.
Here you be entertained and kept up to date on all the exciting things that we will be experiencing as we stumble our way through keeping chickens.
Just a quick bit about us. We live in suburbia, just outside of Philadelphia, PA. My husband and I live on two acres with our dog, Riley, one Geko named Jose, and various fish. All of the creatures that share our home with us are rescues, most of them came into our lives because either their people couldn't care for them or they were no longer wanted. We are animal lovers and softies...and suckers. Seriously, we are blessed with the joy and love that these creatures give to us each day. I volunteer with a local dog rescue on the weekends, and up until recently never gave chickens any thought. Other than that, we are pretty quite low key people with no real social lives, as you will soon find out, but more about that later.
It all started this past Winter...the whole chicken discussion that is.
My husband and I casually thought that it might be fun to have chickens and gather fresh eggs each day.
Very bucolic right? Maybe even romantically nostalgic.
All I know is that at some point our quaint discussion became serious and we crossed he line from 'normal' suburbanites into the domain of domesticated want-a-be flock tenders.
Sounds crazy right? There we were living our happy chicken free life and WHAM, now we are soon to be chicken parents.
What do all soon to be' parents' do? We get books of course! And read everything there is to know about the care and feeding a baby chicks. But when the books aren't enough?
We sign up for chicken class. I know what your thinking...chicken class? Really? Is there even such a thing? I can you tell you first hand that there is indeed such a class. Who knew!
So off we went to 'Chicken Chat' class at a local feed store. (To be perfectly honest here, I didn't even know we had a local feed store until the whole chicken thing began to take over our lives.)
We told our family and friends about our chicken ideas and that we had signed up for chicken class...this was met with some laughter and funny comments. Most went like this... "Chicken class? Really? You're really going to chicken class? (insert laughter and bad clucking imitations here) What do they teach you at chicken class?"
To be honest, I wasn't exactly sure what we were going to learn at chicken class, but I was sure we would learn invaluable things to help us have happy little egg layers. And so off to class we went.
I must back up for a second here. The feed store website said that we had to reserve our spot for chicken class, as spots were limited. Limited? How many people were they really expecting? When the feed store called the day before to confirm that we were coming I assumed if my husband and I weren't going to make it that night that they would cancel the class. After all how people in suburban Philadelphia were looking to raise chickens? I would soon find out.
The big night finally came last week and off to class we went. Much to my surprise there were about 130 people at chicken class! Hard to believe, I know. Apparently there are a lot of other crazy chicken people just like us, I found this strangely comforting on some level.
The class was very informative and and fun. We even won a chicken rug! We came home armed with our baby chick supplies and were now ready to become chicken parents. I also came away from the class with the realization that I needed a better social life. Note to self... join a bowling league or a knitting club or some other equally exciting group.
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| My chicken rug |
We still had some 'details' to work out. For example, which breed of chicken to get, how many to get, where will they live, how will they survive in our 'wild' suburban backyard? Obviously a little more research had to be done.
A quick aside here....one of my latest 'fun' things to do is go on Craig's list and look for items in the 'free' section. Several weeks ago as I was scrolling past all the great free couches and mattresses (Why would someone want someone else's old mattress? Maybe I'm a bit of a snob, but I personally would not wish to 're-home' someones pre-used bedbugs... but I digress). I came across an ad for a free old shed/chicken coop. Jackpot! And the best part was that it was located only a couple of miles from our house. Sweet! Now our girls will have a place to call home.
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| The Girls future home |
This is all coming together now. We have a hen house, an area to make a chicken run, a custom brooding box (a brooding box is what you raise the baby chicks in until they are big enough to go into the run) and waterers and feeders, and a nice warm light bulb to keep the baby's warm. What else do you need? Right...chicks.
Our friend, with the chickens and peacocks, tells us of another feed store (yes, we have two in our area!) that he uses for all his chicken needs. My husband gives them a call and orders 10 Rhode Island Red chicks.
More chick info...chicks come in sets of 5 or 15. Why they don't come in a sets of 6 or 12 I have no idea.
My thought here is that if you want a dozen eggs a day you would get a dozen chickens. Makes sense to me.
Somewhere in the past, someone made a decision and went with lots of 5. Maybe they could only count chickens on one hand...maybe that extra digit on the other hand was just too confusing for them. We will probably never know for sure. (If you are in the chick business, please do not take offense at this offering. You are welcome to enlighten me to the mysteries of chicken lots of 5.)
Just a couple of days ago, my husband comes to me and says he wants to bump up our order and get 15 chickens instead of 10. Fifteen chickens...I'm not sure about this. Do we have enough room? How much room does 1 chicken need? Back to the books for the answer. Each adult chicken needs 1.5 to 2 square feet to be happy. Does this mean in just the hen house or does that include the yard area as well? This is becoming complicated. My brain is beginning to hurt.
It turns out that the square footage includes the hen house and the run. Whew, because my loving husband has already ordered the additional chickens.
And so the chicken countdown begins. With weeks to go, I begin to think of names for our chicks. Since they will all be girls (chicken trivia...did you do not have to have a male, known as a cock, to get hens to lay eggs? You learn something new every day!). I decide to go with old fashioned names. When I bring this list to my husband he tells me not to name the chickens. I proclaim that they must have names. His thoughts are that if I name them then I won't let him make them into dinner. Damned right I won't! As I mentioned above, I am an animal lover. I don't kill things, not even spiders. Some of you are thinking 'Wacko' and I'm OK with that. Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. I just think that we are all here to live our life and who am I to end one?
I'll get off the soap box now and continue.
Chicken names..that's where we left off.
Mildred and Sophie (My grandmothers names)
Hilda (after my Aunt)
Prudence
Mabel
Esther
Henrietta
Clara
Hazel
Priscilla
Ethel
Wilhemina
That's 12 names..3 more to go. If you have a suggestion, please let me know. I would be happy to let one of you choose a name. So send me some suggestions.
First it is weeks and then days, then mere hours until we pick up 'The Girls.' That is what we are supposed to be doing right now. But someone, who shall remain nameless, thought the feed store was open until 7 PM. They are not. My husband will now go pick up the chicks first thing in the morning...without me :(
He told me to stop making the' boo boo' face at him. But sometimes it's fun to mess with his head.
So 'The Girls' arrive tomorrow morning. And I can't wait.
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